Missionary Travel Health Insurance
What is Missionary Health Insurance?
Missionary health insurance is a form of travel medical insurance that provides emergency medical benefits covering a range of medical bills and travel assistance from our travel experts as you serve communities abroad.
In a time when people are suffering from the impacts of war, famine, and poverty, mission volunteers are needed now more than ever. But unforeseen situations out in the missionary field can hinder your ability to serve.
Atlas Travel® insurance can provide international coverage to missionaries needing their own insurance or insurance for up to 4 people. Mission groups of 5 or more can save time and money by purchasing one Atlas Group® insurance plan at a 10% reduced rate.
Why Should I Have Health Insurance for Missionaries?
International travel always comes with a degree of risk, but mission trips can require additional preparation for hazards unique to humanitarian work, such as exposure to stress-causing ethical challenges and limited availability of food, water, lodging, transportation, or medical care.
Here are five reasons to consider missionary medical insurance for your mission trip abroad:
1. Mission travel often leads volunteers to developing countries where there is increased risk of illness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 43% - 79% of travelers to developing countries report becoming ill. They’re also at higher risk of diseases due to contaminated food and water.
2. Missionaries may face increased risk of accidents, injuries, and death. Certain types of mission work can require long hours in adverse conditions, which can result in injury. Additionally, the risk of vehicle-related accidents and injuries is higher in developing countries with poorly maintained vehicles and infrastructure.
3. Missionaries can face reduced levels of security and protection. While your mission leader should take all necessary precautions to keep you safe, natural disasters and conflict can be prevalent in areas where humanitarian work is needed.
4. Your regular health insurance may not cover you outside of your home country. The U.S. Department of State urges you to ask your medical insurance company if your policy applies overseas – and if it covers emergency expenses such as medical evacuation. If it doesn’t, mission trip insurance can provide the coverage you need for your time abroad.
5. Your visa may require travel medical insurance or proof that you’ll be able to pay for unexpected expenses (like medical expenses) incurred in your host country. Our Atlas Travel and Atlas Group plans meet the requirements of many visas, including Europe’s Schengen visa. They also provide policyholders with a visa letter you can use to help prove your ability to pay for unexpected medical expenses.
What Does Travel Medical Insurance for Mission Travel Cover?
In the face of an unexpected medical emergency during your mission trip abroad, missionary health insurance can provide important medical and emergency travel benefits as well as emergency travel assistance.
Atlas Travel and Atlas Group insurance policies pay 100% of eligible expenses after the deductible and up to the overall maximum limit. You can customize your plan by choosing your deductible, coverage length, and overall coverage maximum. Plus, Atlas Group offers a 10% reduced rate for groups of 5 or more.
Some Highlights Include:
- Up to $2,000,000 of Overall Maximum Coverage
- Up to $1,000,000 for Emergency Medical Evacuation
- Terrorism, Political Evacuation, and Crisis Response benefits
- Coverage for eligible medical expenses including hospital room & board, physician charges, diagnostics, surgery, sutures, and more
- 7 deductible choices
Did You Know?
Up to 79% of travelers to the developing world experience a health issue during their trip, such as diarrhea, respiratory infections, and skin disorders, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Pre-departure planning, with assessment of potential disease risks, can help prevent illness or injury during your travel abroad,” shares the International Travel Health Guide. That’s why it’s important to learn about your destination country and the immunizations, medications, clothing, equipment, and devices you need to stay safe.
How Do Atlas Travel Benefits Work in Action?
See examples of how a missionary health insurance plan like Atlas Travel or Atlas Group can provide coverage for your mission trip abroad.
1. You experience a serious bout of food poisoning that requires inpatient hospitalization.Medical emergencies are scary enough when you’re in your home country, let alone a foreign country where you’re unfamiliar with the healthcare system–and may not speak much of the local language.
With mission insurance like Atlas Travel or Atlas Group, you’ll be covered for the cost of a local ambulance to transport you to the hospital if a covered injury or illness results in hospitalization.
You’ll also have coverage for all other eligible medical expenses, including hospital room and board, physician charges, diagnostic testing, surgery, and more.
Atlas Travel and Atlas Group also provide access to provider referrals, translation services, and other travel assistance services. These services are available in multiple languages 365 days a year.
2. You’re helping to build a school in a remote region of Uganda when you fall from a ladder and suffer life-threatening injuries.You’re taken to the nearest medical facility for treatment, but the local facility does not have the equipment required to provide the medically necessary treatment.
Fortunately, you’re covered under your Atlas plan’s Emergency Medical Evacuation benefit. This benefit will pay up to $1,000,000 to transport you via air or ground transportation to the nearest hospital properly equipped to treat you and save your life or limb.
Following a covered emergency medical evacuation, your Emergency Reunion benefit can pay up to $100,000 to transport a family member to the area where you are hospitalized so they can help you recover. Your family member will be covered for reasonable expenses resulting from lodging and meals for up to 15 days.
Learn more about the Emergency Medical Evacuation benefit or learn how the Emergency Reunion benefit works during and after an emergency.
3. You’re teaching literacy classes in India when an earthquake strikes, causing structural damage to your mission group’s rental housing.Fortunately, your Atlas insurance plan includes a Natural Disaster – Replacement Accommodations benefit. Since your necessary evacuation from a covered natural disaster has displaced you from your planned and paid accommodations, this benefit will pay up to $250 a day (for up to five days) for alternative lodging.
IMPORTANT NOTE: A natural disaster is an event of natural cause, including wildfire, earthquake, windborne dust or sand, volcanic eruption, tsunami, snow, rain, or wind that results in widespread and severe damage.
This benefit only provides coverage for expenses resulting from a hurricane or typhoon if you have less than 72 hours of advance notice for the named hurricane or typhoon OR the named storm’s path deviates more than 200 miles from the forecasted path within a 72-hour period.
Review the Atlas Travel or Atlas Group Description of Coverage for full benefit conditions and exclusions.
Optional Buyup: Crisis Response Rider with Natural Disaster Evacuation Coverage
If you added the optional Crisis Response Rider with Natural Disaster Evacuation Coverage buyup upon purchase, you will also have up to $10,000 of coverage for an eligible evacuation to the nearest safe location or to your home country if your destination becomes uninhabitable and you’re unable to leave by normal means.
Review the Atlas Travel or Atlas Group Description of Coverage for full benefit conditions and exclusions.
4. Three weeks after you arrive in Guatemala, the U.S. Department of State issues a level 3 “reconsidertravel” advisory for your location.
Political and social factors can change the security status of a country in an instant. If the U.S. Department of State issues a level 3 or higher travel advisory for your location after your arrival, your Political Evacuation benefit will pay up to $10,000 to transport you to the nearest safe country (or to your home country—whichever WorldTrips deems appropriate).
You must contact us within 10 days of the date the travel advisory is issued to be eligible for this benefit. Expenses may not arise directly or indirectly from anything in the policy’s general exclusions.
You can stay up to date with current travel advisories from the U.S. Department of State here. U.S. citizens can also enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive important info about safety conditions in your destination and help the U.S. embassy contact you in an emergency.
5. While on a mission trip to Bangladesh, your fellow traveler is taken in an express kidnapping and held for a small ransom.It can be scary to think about the threat of kidnapping while bringing aid to communities abroad, but foreign travelers can be targets of crime—especially in places where security is weak or nonexistent.
Fortunately, your fellow traveler is covered under an Atlas insurance policy, which includes a Crisis Response benefit. In the case of a covered kidnapping, the Crisis Response benefit provides up to $10,000 to cover:
- Ransom
- Personal belongings surrendered in the kidnapping
- Crisis response fees and expenses
We partner with Unity Advisory Group/On Call International to advise and support your family while working on negotiations and resolution strategies. Your family and law enforcement will have access to the 24/7 Response Operations Center, which employs a team of analysts who have expertise in security, terrorism, international politics, and logistics. This team will work to safely negotiate your release.
Note that you are not covered if a kidnapping or express kidnapping first occurs in certain excluded countries or countries for which we are prohibited from transaction due to sanctions by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Review the Atlas Travel or Atlas Group Description of Coverage for a full list of excluded countries as well as additional Crisis Response conditions and exclusions.
Why Choose Atlas Travel Insurance?
Flexibility
Atlas Travel and Atlas Group plans are available to individuals 14 days old and up who are traveling outside of their home country for up to 364 days. Atlas Group is available at a 10% reduced rate for groups of 5 or more. After purchase, mission travelers will have the ability to extend their coverage via Member Portal, our online policy management portal.
Ease-of-Use
You can purchase group coverage while traveling, extend your coverage after purchase, or cancel your policy if your plans change. Your policy documents will be sent to your email address immediately upon purchase. You can also visit our Find a Doctor page to find qualified medical providers in your destination country.
Customizable Coverage
Customize your policy by choosing the deductible, length of coverage, and overall coverage maximum that best align with your travel needs. You’ll also have the option to upgrade your coverage amounts for several key benefits.
Multilingual Travel Assistance
As an Atlas policyholder, you'll have access to our multilingual travel assistance services 365 days a year. Emergency services are available 24/7. Travel assistance services include referrals, translation assistance, help replacing lost or stolen travel documents, medical monitoring, coordination of emergency travel arrangements, and more.
Are There Any Exclusions To Keep In Mind?
Certain types of expenses are excluded from all Atlas Series plans. Here are some of the more asked-about exclusions:
- *Pre-existing conditions
- Routine medical examinations and care (i.e. wellness exams, ongoing prescriptions, etc.)
- Routine pre-natal, pregnancy, childbirth, and post-natal care
- Medical expenses for injury/illness resulting from participation in some extreme sports
- Medical expenses related to any form of cancer or neoplasm
- Mental health disorders
- Injury due in whole or in part to the effects of intoxication or drugs (this does not refer to drugs taken in accordance with treatment prescribed by a physician)
For a full list of exclusions, be sure to review the Description of Coverage for your plan. See the Atlas Travel Description of Coverage here or view the Atlas Group Description of Coverage here.
*A pre-existing condition means any injury, illness, sickness, disease, or other physical medical, mental, or nervous disorder, condition, or ailment that, with reasonable medical certainty, existed at the time of application or at any time during the 2 years prior to the effective date of this insurance, whether or not previously manifested, symptomatic or known, diagnosed, treated, or disclosed to us prior to the effective date, and including any and all subsequent, chronic or recurring complications or consequences related thereto or resulting or arising therefrom.
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WorldTrips international travel medical insurance products are underwritten by Lloyd's. WorldTrips is a service company and a member of the Tokio Marine HCC group of companies. WorldTrips has authority to enter into contracts of insurance on behalf of the Lloyd's underwriting members of Lloyd's Syndicate 4141, which is managed by HCC Underwriting Agency, Ltd.